I'm more than a little disgusted by the latest alleged "teenage craze".
Viral videos posted on social media show teenagers snorting condoms as part of a so-called "condom snorting challenge."
In the videos, teens put an unwrapped condom up one of their nostrils and inhale until the condom comes out of their mouth. Like other viral challenges, the condom snorting challenge has been around for years but recently reemerged on social media.
. . .
While teens may think the condom snorting challenge goes without consequences, it can be dangerous ... with the exception of doctor-prescribed nasal sprays, "anything else that goes up your nose can damage the sensitive inner lining of your nose, cause an allergic reaction, or result in an infection."
[Dr. Lee] notes that the condom could also get stuck in the nasal cavity or the throat and cause someone to choke.
There's more at the link.
Verily, the mind doth boggle. If I'd tried anything so utterly idiotic, my father would have beaten the stupid out of me with a clue-by-four. He'd also have refused to fund any further study for me, school or higher, on the grounds that I clearly wasn't worth the waste of money it would involve. He'd have been right.
I don't know why such stupidity appears to be so rampant among teenagers in the First World, and particularly the USA. When I was in my not-so-late teens (only just turned 17), I put on a uniform and buckled down to learning military discipline. What my drill sergeant would have said about such antics remains a tantalizing mental exercise. His vocabulary would certainly have been up to the task! I think any teen caught (or filming themselves) doing anything like that should have ten years added to the age at which they can legally vote, drink or drive. They'll have demonstrated conclusively that they aren't mature enough for any of those activities!
As for the teens . . . why not add a Tide Pod to it? Any fool can eat a Tide Pod. Snorting one - in a condom, no less - now that requires real talent!
Peter
I can think of lots of crazes over the years, and I'm not talking about just during the Internet age.
ReplyDeleteHow about swallowing goldfish, stuffing people in to cars/phone booths/etc., and streaking just for starters?
There have always been stupid trick crazes, we just hear about them more quickly.
And these are the moral arbiters we are urged to heed in setting national firearms restrictions. Such sophisticated thinkers, uniquely qualified to impose Constitutional infringements....
ReplyDeleteI remember the Three Stooges; they did all sorts of utterly crazy slapstick things. And I'd never have considered them anything but play-act entertainment even when I was in the single digits.
ReplyDeleteSome of these - e.g., the "hot coil challenge" - are cases of evolution waiting to happen. As I understand it may have for a couple of Tide pod people.
True brainwashing, for a change?
ReplyDelete...
Never mind. My mind is boggled and needs to reset.
Idle brains are the devil's tools. Nobody is challenging them intellectually (or physically for that matter) so they are finding ways to occupy their time. Society, their parents, and the education system have failed them.
ReplyDeletei remember a Corporal in my tank platoon who did something similar with a dogtag chain, back when I was in the Corps. Of course, he would only do it on a barroom bet for beer money, and he was something of a freak of nature in the first place.
ReplyDelete[For the record, I never tried to match him, although I did enjoy a round or two from his winnings... ;) )
I have to say that I have yet to run into a news story about a teenager actually getting sick because he ate a tide pod. Small children, yes. And I recall other supposed 'fads' such as 'butt chugging' which turned out to exist largely in the fevered imagination of a few gullible reporters (vodka enema? My God how that would sting! Dd nobody think about that?).
ReplyDeleteYes, I know, there are youTube videos purportedly showing some idiot eating a tide pos. There are (or were, anyway) youTube videos of people eating mentos and drinking coke...and then exploding. Faking the consumption of a tide pod would be child's play.
Hopefully, with what little brains the modern U.S. education system left them, they were ess emm art enough to use lubricated ones.
ReplyDeleteC-90
Right out of the package? I was expecting after use.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking back on my own youth and observing many of the young over my 68 years, I have long ago come to the conclusion that young and stupid are in fact, one and the same!
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, the "Tide Pod Challenge" was a meme, promulgated by 4chan, and swallowed (no pun intended) hook, line, and sinker by the mainstream media, and certain YouTube creators. Kids were never actually eating Tide Pods. Or rather, non-toddler kids were not eating Tide Pods, in any significant number.
ReplyDeleteAs for the current alleged "fad" this isn't a politically controversial subject, so I'm inclined to trust Snopes' conclusion that it's "mostly false" here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/condom-snorting-challenge/